Loooong Day

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"Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen."
-Benjamin Disraeli

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Well, that may have been one of the longest days of my entire life. After the extremely late night of unpacking and getting settled into my room, Coronation Hall 4311, we had to wake up at 8am to get some "breakfast" and head over to our English teacher meeting at 9:30. I use the quotes around the breakfast because there really isn't breakfast in Thailand. Most Thais will have something like Cow Men Gai (a chicken and soup dish) for breakfast instead of our typical cereal or eggs for the starting meal. While such a dish is delicious and I enjoy it many times at lunch, there is still a little bit of time needed before I start eating full meals for breakfast. I'll check back on that issue a little later in the year.



Thais are notorious for loving to talk about anything and everything. Problem #1 with this fact is that you can sit in a room with a Thai person holding a microphone for hours longer than necessary (as was the case today). I seriously don't understand what it is about the microphone. When they are speaking without one, they are shy and reserved, but once they get that phallic piece of electronic equipment in front of their face, they transform into some sort of other being. The Dean of the Department stood up in front of the room to giver her "Opening Remarks" for approximately 25 minutes and said nothing more that that she was happy to be here and that she was glad for the arrival of the new English teachers (ie. us) to the school. She did however bestow such a great honor on all of us as to tell us that we are all "very beautiful people" and that she is sad that she is not teaching with us and our substantial beauty. I don't know what it is about Thais, but everything and I mean everything, has to be pretty. They make shitty textbooks that are seriously photocopied pieces of other textbooks, but they are proud of them because they have "very pretty covers" on them. What the hell is that about? Who knows - but one thing I do know, is that they are more obsessed with congratulating each other for nothing that they are obsessed with hearing themselves speak.



After the meeting, a bunch of the teachers went over to Grandmas for our first authentic Thai meal and a huge hug from the little lady. She was so happy to see Reavey and I and asked several times for Moo Waan (Faherty). The pad see ew gai was delicious, but it was hard for me to completely enjoy it because I was constantly worried that the others wouldn't like their food. I know I shouldn't feel this way, but in some sense, I feel that I am responsible for making sure that everyone else has a good time. I know I shouldn't. I mean... we are all college graduates and I hope that everyone is independent enough to fend for themselves. We have all been abroad before and I am confident that everyone had an equally eye opening time in realizing exactly what they could do on their own... which is a tremendous amount.



Pond brought us to Bangkapi to get phones and that was my first tiem back on the khlong. Ohhhh the khlong. How I missed thee. It is such an experience. There were mixed reviews about the cleanliness of the water and whether or not they needed to take a 10 minute or 1 hour shower to rinse the black water off their clothes from the splash back en route. The trip was a success as I was able to cross off 4 of the initial items on my To Do List. I still need to get over to Big C to finish off the list, but that should all be done by tomorrow.


-Mhe Yak

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